Mary Putnam Jacobi (1842 - 1906)

Mary Corinna Putnam Jacobi was an esteemed US physician, teacher, scientist, writer, and suffragist. She was the first woman allowed to enroll to study medicine at the University of Paris, and had a long career practicing medicine, teaching, writing, and advocating for women's rights, especially in medical education. Disparaging anecdotal evidence and traditional approaches, she demanded rigorous scientific research on every question of the day. Her scientific rebuttal of the popular idea that menstruation made women unsuited to education was influential in the fight for women's educational opportunities.

Married Abraham Jacobi, known as "the father of pediatrics"

Known for
Medicine

First female admitted to École de Médecine in Paris, 1868.

She received Harvard University's Boylston Prize in 1876 for an original essay, "The Question of Rest for Women during Menstruation." Jacobi's paper, which included original scientific research, was a response to Dr. Edward H. Clarke's earlier publication, Sex in Education; or, A Fair Chance for the Girls (1875), a book claiming that any physical or mental exertion during menstruation could lead to women becoming infertile. Jacobi did not believe this was the case, and to test the idea she collected extensive physiological data on women throughout their menstrual cycle, including muscle strength tests before and after menstruation. She concluded that "there is nothing in the nature of mentruation to imply the necessity, or even desirability, of rest."

As an attending and consulting physician, Mary Jacobi opened a children's ward at the New York Infirmary in 1886. She became a member of the New York Pathological Society and the New York Academy of Medicine, memberships that were vital to securing jobs and colleagues' respect. Dr. Jacobi's admission to the Academy of Medicine, earned by a majority of one vote, made her the society's first female member.

Daughter of George Putnam, NY publisher. She wrote many stories and essays in young adulthood, published in newspapers and in Putnam's Magazine, using the earnings to pay for schools, but after obtaining her Paris medical degree gave up literature to focus on medicine

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Wikipedia

"The Question of Rest for Women during Menstruation"

"Common Sense" Applied to Women's Suffrage (1894) This expanded on an address she made that same year before a constitutional convention in Albany. It was reprinted in 1915 and contributed to the final successful push for women's suffrage.